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Chameleon Launcher Beta updates to 0.9.0 – widget API now in place

The Chameleon Launcher beta updated to version 0.9.0 yesterday. Among other updates, the widget API is now available, allowing developers to start creating widgets for the tablet-only launcher.

Since it first entered beta in early August, Chameleon has seen a fairly rapid development schedule, with three releases in the last two weeks. Though Chameleon, which is still in limited early release state, has been well-received, one of the most popular feature requests has been for more widgets. By opening up the widget API in version 0.9.0, the Chameleon team now frees up more of their own time to work on core features while other developers create widgets.

One of the most interesting things about this update was going to be the “Make a Widget” widget. This is a tool that allows developers to easily load and test their widgets within Chameleon Launcher. Unfortunately, this feature won’t show up in 0.9.0 due to what Chameleon says is a “small slip up.” Not to worry though; they plan to push out a small update to 0.9.1 which fixes this issue. This update should arrive sometime today.

The widget API isn’t the only new thing in the 0.9.0 update. Multiple bugs have been fixed, including a crash bug that affected some Samsung devices. The memory footprint has been reduced, issues with custom wallpapers on high resolution devices have been resolved, and all existing widgets have been updated to work with the new grid layouts introduced in 0.9.0.

Chameleon promises that they plan to add more of their own widgets, with Google+, Calendar and Media widgets being among those planned. Apparently a major update for the Weather widget is also planned. There are still some bugs involving widgets not working as expected, such as widgets sometimes appearing blank or being drawn twice.

Though Chameleon Launcher appears to be free in the Google Play Store, it is worth noting that the beta will only work for those who have contributed to the Chameleon’s Kickstarter campaign or have pre-ordered the final version of the launcher.

Have you had a chance to try Chameleon Launcher yet? How do you like it so far?